During my time overseeing the undercover investigations at Mercy For Animals (MFA) we documented horrific animal abuse. Much of it so shocking it was featured on national and international news media. This photo being featured by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on its Facebook page is from our (MFA’s) case at Willet Dairy in New York state. The photo shows a painful procedure called “disbudding.” This was one of our earlier employment-based cases (earlier = 2009, so hardly long ago).

At Willet Dairy we documented “disbudding,” which is the painful removal of horns shown here without any pain relief or medical care.

This is the Dairy Industry.

It doesn’t want you to know the truth.

Using a cautering device, this worker digs and burns the horn out of calf after calf. According to dairy experts who reviewed the footage, these calves were all far too old for the procedure not that it’s any less cruel or painful at a younger age.

Ag Gag laws are there to keep you from knowing the truth. You deserve to know the truth and these animals don’t deserve to suffer for absolutely no reason.

Today in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed an historic lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of “ag gag” laws. Given my years overseeing some of the most important undercover investigations for farmed animals in U.S. history, I am a plaintiff in the case.

Ag-Gag laws are unconstitutional.

What better way to show how much animal agribusinesses have to hide than for them to push for laws that violate our constitutional rights and target a specific demographic of “rabble-rousers?” Some of my biggest heroes are the people who wire up with hidden cameras and pull back the curtain on the meat, egg, and dairy industries. They show us exactly what would happen on any other day.

We legally expose and educate the public on all of the gruesome violations of basic human decency to those who are incapable of fighting back – nonhuman animals – and I ask that you stand with us in this fight.